Thursday, August 24, 2006

The Society of Fire Protection Engineers, or SFPE, today announced the 5th anniversary of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center mark occasion to evaluate fire protection engineers’ contributions to building safety. “We believe that we have a very important mission to serve our communities,” says Chris Jelenewicz, engineering program manager for SFPE. “Our knowledge base can be tapped to help limit damage and loss of lives in an extreme emergency.”

Hours after Hurricane Katrina roared up the Mississippi Valley, Brigadier General Crear stood in his blacked-out home in his native Vicksburg, said goodbye to his wife of 33 years, and prepared to go to war.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Retired geochemist Frank Manheim, now adjunct professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and Emeritus professor of chemistry, Eckhard Hellmuth at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, were interested in science education. They tracked down a rumor about special achievements in chemistry at Kansas City Missouri’s formerly segregated Negro high school. Exploring a subject that has involved controversies and sensitivities, their research revealed an important story that was obscured for 50 years.

You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone. But almost everything in your life has been affected by his work. As the world congratulates itself for the new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to guarantee that the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding the most stunning technological advance the world has ever seen.

Captain Vernice G. Armour is the first Black female pilot in the Marine Corps, and the first Black female combat pilot in U.S. Department of Defense history. "I don’t think I knew I was going to do any of it when I was starting out...You learn tactics of how to ‘fight’ the aircraft. In the training squadron, you learn how to fly it. You need to know how to fight it when you go to war, go to battle; you learn to target, and how to come back home safely."

Friday, August 11, 2006

According to the 2nd annual “Most Admired Employers” survey, IBM, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft are recognized by minority engineers as the three best companies for which to work. The survey was conducted by Career Communications Group Inc., publisher of US Black Engineer & Information Technology, Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology, Science Spectrum, and Women of Color magazines.

Darryll J. Pines, Ph. D., made an important contribution to 1994's Clementine spacecraft lunar mapping - first probe to discover water near the south pole of the moon. More recently, he has been researching how remote-control aircraft can be made small enough to fly through windows, and provide war fighters situational awareness inside buildings, caves, or tunnels. In October 2006, Dr. Pines, 41, will chair the Department of Aerospace Engineering in University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering, eleven years after joining the faculty. He spoke to USBE & IT recently.

Vallerie Parrish-Porter is chief information officer for Embarq Corporation. This new NYSE-listed company has approximately 20,000 employees and operates in 18 states offering voice, data, high speed internet, wireless and entertainment services to over 5 million customers. Parrish-Porter was recently selected as one of the "50 Most Important Blacks in Technology" for 2005 by the editors of US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine. She has also won such industry-related awards as the 2003 National Woman of Color Technologist of the Year Award and was recognized as one of Houston's "Top 20 Women in Technology" for 2000. [ Visit Website ]

JD McClurkin, newly-minted graduate summa cum laude from historically Black North Carolina A&T, has just finished her second internship at Battelle Memorial Institute, and is preparing to start a Ph.D-track at Purdue University as a Ross Fellow. JD is the outgoing president of Alpha Epsilon’s chapter at A&T. Alpha Epsilon is an honor society for biological and agricultural engineers who exhibit outstanding qualities of character, leadership, and personality.

Black Aerospace at Unison meet in Arizona

Tuskegee Airmen Inc., Negro Airmen International, the Organization of Black Airline Pilots, and other flying organizations such as Black Pilots of America, the US Army Black Aviation Association, and the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees showcased the accomplishments of Blacks in transportation, aviation, and aerospace at a convention held in Phoenix, Arizona, at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa on 31 July through 5 August. The International Black Aerospace Council, which works in unison to chart the future of Black aviation, coordinates activities to enhance outreach efforts pertaining to Blacks in aerospace career fields. [ Visit Website ]

Saturday, August 05, 2006

It is not clear what the future holds for these programs that, over the last 30 years, have played key roles in increasing the numbers of minorities and women in engineering and the sciences. “We are stuck at a threshold, and those old leaders have retired. The new leaders don’t necessarily have the same vision the early leaders did, and it is taking time for people to realize that future advances will need new investments.”

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Teens, Technology, and Drugs

Text messaging, the Internet, chat rooms and social networking sites can aid teenage drug use, says the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The ONDCP has published an Open Letter to Parents which focuses on the ways in which technology can aid teen drug use and outlines how parents can monitor teens’ digital activities. “The pusher has moved to the PC. With one click of the mouse, teens can enter a virtual world of drugs,” said John P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy. “The Internet can teach teens how to buy or make drugs, how to use different drugs and other products to get high, and how to beat drug tests.” [ Visit Website ]

It is easy to see only the superficial achievements of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities---the number of graduates, the various courses of study---and miss the significant contributions these institutions and their graduates make to our country and to the world. Last year, HBCUs not only graduated 33 percent of all Black engineers, but their graduates were also at the forefront of some of 2005's biggest news stories about national infrastructure, national security, disaster relief, global technical assistance, and research.

Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering (AMIE), the unique organization that establishes partnerships between Fortune 500 corporations and government agencies, named Wilmer Cooksey, General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant general manager, as its new chairman of the board of directors. His election was announced at the Board of Directors meeting during the AMIE Annual Conference held at North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, N.C., in September 2005. He served as the AMIE vice chairman for the past two years.

Myron L. Hardiman, P.E., executive director of Advancing Minorities Interests in Engineering, has been a key player in recruiting minority engineers. He established recruiting programs at North Carolina A&T, Tuskegee University, and Prairie View for Eli Lilly & Company, where he retired after a 32-year career. For the past four years, he has served as liaison between engineering schools of ABET-accredited HBCUs and AMIE’s board of directors, composed of corporate, government, and academic representatives.

The 2006 National Technical Association Conference begins today at Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. The conference will bring together four major components of the organization - technical paper presentation sessions, personal and professional workshops, award recognition ceremonies, and the Technical Career & Opportunity Fair - and mark the 80th anniversary of NTA, the nation's oldest professional technical association of minority scientists and engineers.